Rant #2,911: Congratulations

I hope that you had a good weekend … I sure did.
 
It is nice to report that Saturday and Sunday—and into today on Monday—is a great time for myself and my family, as we finally have some things to cheer about.
 
Let’s look at the weekend first.
 
On Saturday, my son completed another year of bowling, as his league ended its 2021-2022 season.
 
Here are the statistics: his team ended up in eighth place with a 120-150 record, but they actually bowled much better than that, being a victim of the handicap in losing most of their games. I would estimate that without the handicap, his team won about 75 percent to 80 percent of its game, but that is not how this league works.
 
Personally, my son registered a 135 average—up five pins from the previous season—knocking down 8,139 pins in the 60 games he bowled in.
 
He was one of four players to bowl in all 60 games of the season, his average of 135 had him at seventh-best in the league in that category, and his pin total was the fourth best in the league,
 
But the successful season that he had went far beyond those statistics.

 
My son bowls in the Nassau County Police Athletic League Special Needs Unit Bowling League, which is run by the NCPAL SNU, which I believe is the only such organization in the state and the country to run a multitude of sports and other social activities for young men and women with developmental and other life difficulties.
 
The NCPAL SNU oversees activities running from basketball to yoga, and without such an organization, I feel that my son would not have the sports or social activity that he does have.
 
The bowling league, for one, is fun but also extremely competitive—the high game this year was 240—and the entire environment is great, showing once again that people like this can do way more than they are often pegged to be able to do by so-called experts.
 
My son would certainly fit into that category, and my wife and I are extremely proud of him for his successes in this league and the basketball league that he plays in every Friday night.
 
Yesterday and today are kind of mixed into one, so let me explain what I am talking about.
 
Today is my wife and my 29th wedding anniversary, and boy, has the time gone fast!

 
I remember on June 6, 1993, the weather was nice but extremely windy.
 
We had an outdoor ceremony, and all the pillars that were put up were blown down, and with my daughter and two nephews so young but major participants at the wedding, I though they were going to blow away, a la “The Flying Nun.”
 
Somehow, they were able to stay on the ground, we had our ceremony, and we were married.
 
I married the real girl of my dreams, and the past 29 years have posed many challenges, but we have surmounted them all and will continue to hurdle whatever comes our way down the line.
 
So backtracking to yesterday, my wife, our son and myself celebrated our anniversary at a local restaurant, and we had a great meal and rare time eating out.
 
It was all fun!
 
I truly love my wife, and I can’t wait until we hit our 30th anniversary next year! That will be incredible!
 
Two Queens kids hooking up like this, she from the Rockaways and me from South Jamaica … there is just something about Queens-reared people that is hard to put a finger on, but it is tangible and it is there.
 
And my wife and I prove it every day.
 
Making the past few days even more enjoyable has been that the New York Yankees continue to play like gangbusters, and they kept on winning yesterday in spite of the game starting at 11:35 a.m.
 
Major League Baseball is trying to snare younger viewers by putting games each week on various apps, and I have to say that it is annoying, I don’t like the fact that games that I am already paying for are not available to me without these apps, and that the starting times of these games are highly unusual, but yesterday, I actually already subscribed to the app that the game was on—Peacock, which carries all the WWE pay per views—so I was able to watch the game in question.
 
The app went off in the middle of the telecast about a dozen times—once with Aaron Judge at the plate and with the bases were loaded—so the whole thing was annoying, but the Yankees won in the 10th inning, so all was forgotten.
 
I don’t like this trend—basically forcing people to double pay for games they are already paying for, as I subscribe to YES, where the bulk of games are shown—but with another win, I can temper my feelings a little bit, at least for now.
 
Is this the future of professional sports? I certainly hope not.
 
And anyway, if you want to see the real sporting attitude, all you have to do is see my son and his cohorts play in their various leagues run by the NCPAL SNU to view what sports are really all about.